


isn't it pretty to think so?

by hachimitsuto



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming of Age, Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Side Hyunjin/Jaemin, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27024868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hachimitsuto/pseuds/hachimitsuto
Summary: Hyunjin’s favourite colour is blue. Seungmin remembers because that’s the colour of his swimsuit back when they went to the same swimming school shortly after they started elementary school.
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 62





	isn't it pretty to think so?

**Author's Note:**

> short thing i wrote as a practice to overcome my writer's block. i'm sorry this is kinda incoherent TT 

Hyunjin’s favourite colour is blue. Seungmin remembers because that’s the colour of his swimsuit back when they went to the same swimming school shortly after they started elementary school. That’s also the colour of almost every item in his basket when they went out to shop at Daiso the day after Hyunjin moved into his new house.

“Sorry for dragging you out,” Hyunjin had said sheepishly afterwards.

Seungmin was sucking the last of his iced coffee through the straw. On their way back to Hyunjin’s new apartment, they stopped by a cafe after getting off the subway, just as the sun started to dip behind the tall buildings. Hyunjin insisted on paying for Seungmin’s drink. “It’s okay,” Seungmin said. “It was kind of fun.”

If everything went according to the original plan, Hyunjin would have gone with Felix. But then Felix had to cancel on him last minute because he needed to go see his professor to talk about his thesis, and he felt so bad about it that he couldn’t stop apologizing to Hyunjin over lunch. That’s how Seungmin volunteered to go with Hyunjin instead.

“Thank you for coming with me,” Hyunjin said to him, beaming.

Later when Hyunjin invited him to stay for tea, Seungmin turned it down and excused himself as soon as he put down his things on the floor near the door to the bathroom. The house, which is a pretty small one-bedroom apartment, was a mess with boxes and bubble wraps and huge plastic bags littered all over the place. There wasn’t a cup in sight on the sink, and Seungmin was pretty sure Hyunjin was still crashing at Jisung’s place then.

There’s a mug in Seungmin’s hands now as he sits in Hyunjin’s living room. It’s been weeks since their shopping trip, and presently Hyunjin is hosting a mini housewarming party for his friends after finally settling in. All the boxes and bubble wraps and plastic bags are gone.

“Would you bake these for me every week for the price of my unconditional love?” Jisung asks aloud, his mouth so full that his protruding cheeks are actually in the shape of two ping pong balls.

Felix laughs at that. “I can’t buy ingredients with your love, mate,” he says, and offers Jisung another one of his red velvet cupcakes that he baked and brought over. He also brought a set of microwave-friendly food containers as a housewarming gift for Hyunjin.

“If I’d known you were gonna bring cupcakes I wouldn’t have killed myself trying to cook this tteokbokki,” Hyunjin says when he appears from the kitchen, wearing an apron that he bought solely for the calico cat print. He was so excited about it and grinned so broadly when he showed it to Seungmin.

Seungmin turns to the tteokbokki. It’s a little too red because Hyunjin accidentally poured in too much chili powder, but tastes a little too sweet because he added honey in his attempt to fix the dish. The pot is a little too small, too, and he cooked enough for probably ten people. There’s only the four of them here. “I like tteokbokki,” he says.

Hyunjin looks at him from across the tiny table where they’re sitting on his brand new carpet. “I only have you, Seungmin-ah,” he says, eyes crinkling into a smile.

In between that and Jisung whining _but what about that time I gave you a last minute Ted Talk when you nearly had a meltdown right before your presentation two weeks ago because your groupmate wasn’t picking up your calls?_ and Felix laughing at all of them, Seungmin presses his lips and wraps his fingers tighter around the mug and says nothing.

The thing is, Seungmin and Hyunjin aren’t really friends, even though in theory they should, given that they’ve known each other since forever. But in practice, they only got to know each other sort of by osmosis, because as soon as Hyunjin quit the swimming school, he started playing basketball and met Jeno, who was Seungmin’s best friend throughout elementary school before he moved away. Then they pretty much ignored each other’s existence until they somehow got into the same university and somehow befriended the same circle of friends.

Even then, it’s not like Seungmin would hang out with Hyunjin by choice. He wouldn’t go out of his way to ask Hyunjin to help pay for his triangle kimbap even if the line was long at the convenience and Hyunjin was already in the queue.

Here’s an example:

Once, way back when they were second years, Seungmin went over to Jisung’s room to return Jisung’s book that he borrowed. But instead of Jisung, Seungmin found Hyunjin sprawled on Jisung’s single bed watching a movie with Minho, Jisung’s roommate on his laptop.

“Oh, Jisung went out. I don’t know when he will be back,” Hyunjin said, now sitting cross-legged facing him. “But you can join us? We’re not even halfway through the movie yet.”

Minho looked at Seungmin then. In all honesty, Seungmin had never really talked to Minho before, even though he’d been around so often. All he knew about Minho was that he’s two years older than them, was double majoring in Applied Mathematics and Chinese Language, and that once when Seungmin went for a walk around the dorm block sometime past midnight in the middle of January because he couldn’t fall asleep, he saw him feeding the stray cats that usually linger in the area. “Stay if you want” was all he said.

Seungmin didn't stay. He left the book on Jisung's desk and spent his time while dragging his feet up the staircase back to his room on the fourth floor wondering if he should have.

Maybe a part of Seungmin has always wondered what it would’ve been like to be friends— _really_ friends—with Hyunjin.

Back in high school, Hyunjin tore his ACL so badly while playing that he had to undergo surgery for it, stay out of school for a month to focus on recovery and start physical therapy, and quit basketball altogether. Seungmin didn’t know about any of this until he saw Hyunjin in crutches one morning on their way to school. Actually, he wouldn’t have realized that it was Hyunjin if it hadn’t been for his aqua blue Jansport backpack which he’d used for so long that the colour was all faded.

He’s thinking about that backpack all of a sudden while looking at the girl who’s holding the same copy of the book he just returned last Wednesday after borrowing it for nearly two months, bouncing his knees under the table because the library is just too cold and the toilet is too far for him to leave his laptop. That’s when someone else comes into view, and when Seungmin tears his gaze away to look up, Jisung’s already grinning at him.

“Checking out girls?” he asks, voice too loud.

Seungmin’s face burns. “No, I’m not—” And then Jisung’s laughing as he settles down in the seat across from him. Another boy sitting two tables away glances at them, but Seungmin is too distracted by Jisung’s huge yellow coloured Tupperware tumbler that he carries around everyday to notice. It reminds him that he really needs to go to the toilet.

“Watch my stuff, will you?” Seungmin says, and sprints off without hearing a response.

When he comes back a little over five minutes later, the one sitting at his table with one hand fiddling with his phone and the other placed over Seungmin’s laptop protectively is not Jisung, but Hyunjin.

“What happened to Jisung?” Seungmin blurts out before he even reaches his chair.

Hyunjin gives him a shrug. “He said he’s hungry. He just called me and told me to watch your things,” he says, retracting his hand. “Actually he just told me to come. I didn’t realize these are your things until I saw this band sticker on your laptop.”

“Oh.” Seungmin falls quiet. He pulls his chair to sit back down and continue working on his essay that he needs to turn in by midnight, but his hands are frozen on the keyboard as he tries not to stare at Hyunjin.

He’s still on his phone, typing away. His backpack, no longer the faded aqua blue Jansport but a brand new Tommy Jeans that he got from Jaemin as a birthday present last year, is perched on the chair next to him. It arrived nearly two months late because the shipping company messed up the address, and Seungmin heard from Jisung that Jaemin lost his shit and called them everyday to make sure that it didn’t get lost. The bag is black with a stripe of white and red on the front pocket. Seungmin still can’t get used to it.

“Jaemin?” Seungmin asks.

Off guard, Hyunjin’s wide-eyed smile is sheepish and endearing. “Yeah,” he says, locking his phone and putting it away. “He’s worried about finding a job because he’s not going to graduate until June, and by then all the good companies might not be hiring anymore.”

“Oh.” Over the course of Hyunjin’s relationship with Jaemin which bloomed near the end of their second year before Jaemin transferred to a university in Shanghai, Seungmin met Jaemin for a grand total of two times. The last time was during his farewell party, and Seungmin remembers how Hyunjin’s lower lip bled because he was biting it too hard to stop himself from crying. Aside from that, he doesn’t really have any memories of Jaemin. “I don’t think all companies stop recruiting graduates immediately.”

“That’s what I said, but he still can’t stop worrying.”

The screen of his laptop goes black after no activity. “What about you? Did you start looking for jobs yet?”

“Yeah. I actually have an interview next week,” Hyunjin replies.

Seungmin doesn’t mention that he has one as well next week, but fate—or maybe just coincidence—is funny, because they end up running into each other at the same job interview.

“What’s this, Seungmin? Are we really destined to be together forever?” Hyunjin laughs as Seungmin looks up from filling out his form.

No one would have guessed it, really, because for all the way their social circle intersected and overlapped, they’re from completely different departments. Seungmin shrugs in response. And when his name gets called later, he can’t help glancing back at Hyunjin who’s sitting in the third row and waving a little too enthusiastically while mouthing _Kim Seungmin, fighting!_

Maybe, Seungmin thinks, smiling back, a part of him has always wanted them to be friends.

Jaemin breaks up with Hyunjin a week after their graduation ceremony. He’s decided to stay in Shanghai for a couple more years and get a job there. A week before that, he’s sent him a bouquet of pink lilies for the ceremony.

Presently, the flowers are sitting in a vase on Hyunjin’s small desk by the window, mostly already wilted. The window is open, and the breeze that slips into the house bring with it cherry blossom petals from the trees across the road. Knowing Hyunjin, it probably would take him some time to throw the flowers out. It wouldn’t surprise Seungmin if he never does.

“He doesn’t deserve you,” Jisung says, his voice stiff and sounding too scripted that Hyunjin pauses in between dabbing his eyes with a balled up tissue to laugh. “What?”

“Nothing. Thanks, Jisung,” he says.

The smell of Felix’s freshly baked chocolate chip soft cookies fills the apartment as soon as he opens the lid of the container. He packed them straight as soon as he took them out of the oven, and when Seungmin reaches for one, it’s still nicely warm and toasty in his hand.

“I’m gonna miss your bakes, Felix,” Jisung pouts. Felix decided that he’s not ready to join the workforce yet, so he’s heading back to Sydney for his postgraduate studies. Jisung is enlisting in two weeks, for the sake of getting it over with quickly.

Felix guffaws at him. “You’re not gonna miss _me_?”

In between the two of them bickering and Hyunjin sitting right there cracking up and forgetting that he’s been crying, Seungmin wraps his hands around his beer can and stares at the photo frame next to the vase. It’s an old family photo that was probably taken when they were in middle school, seeing that Hyunjin still had his pet dog. As far as Seungmin knows, Kkami disappeared one night just after they started high school and never came back. He can’t remember if he ever met Hyunjin’s dog.

“It’s upsetting,” Hyunjin tells Seungmin two days later over udon. Both of them ended up getting the job they interviewed for, and even though they’re on different floors and eat lunch with different people, they still stop by a snack cart or convenience store together after work sometimes. Maybe it’s the familiarity. “It feels like everything is changing.”

Seungmin nods. “Yeah.” It felt weird finding a stranger on the other bed the first time he went to Jisung’s room after Minho graduated, and not seeing Hyunjin with his aqua blue Jansport backpack on their first day of university. It still feels weird not getting texts from Felix around 12.40 asking the same question everyday: _where to eat lunch today?_ “Everything’s changed.”

“You know,” Hyunjin begins. His blazer is folded on the chair next to him with his brand new sling bag that Felix got him as a present, just so that he didn’t have to use Jaemin’s gift anymore. His necktie, blue like the colour of his swimsuit back then, is Seungmin’s birthday present. His favourite colour. “I always wonder, if I didn’t quit swimming school back then, would we have been best friends?”

Truth be told, Seungmin wonders about that all the time. He smiles. “Maybe.”

“When we were in high school, whenever I saw you eating at the cafeteria with your friends, or across the hallway when you and your classmates were walking to the lab, I wondered what it would’ve been like to be friends with you. Would we be sitting together at lunch? Would you have visited me at the hospital? Would you come over to my house to hang out like how you used to go over to Jeno’s house?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Seungmin sees two boys around their age clinking their glasses while making a toast about exams. He briefly wonders if they’ve known each other since they were kids, or met for the first time in university, or learned to become friends only recently.

But it would have turned out to be a completely different story, had Hyunjin not quit the swimming school.

“We’re friends now,” he points out. It doesn’t matter anyway, because despite all the detours, they’re here eating dinner together and sharing drinks, just like the two boys. “Right?”

The corners of Hyunjin’s mouth curve up into a smile. “Right.”


End file.
